Sunday, November 11, 2012

Election Reflection

by Blueberry T

Victory is sweet! What a relief that the long, long election is
over, with such wonderful results:
President Obama and VP Biden re-elected, gains in the Senate and House,
several important ballot questions on marriage equality, abortion rights, legalization of marijuana and curtailing the influence of money in campaigns. Tuesday was a great day in American history!

Bloggers, new media and those few in the MSM
who consistently pointed out Romney’s lies, flip-flops and the real issues
in the campaign; a special hat-tip to Steve Benen of Maddow’s blog for his
extraordinary documentation of Romney’s lies

The writers, budget analysts and others (like Bernie Sanders and Paul Krugman) who
publicized what Romney and Ryan’s budget and other proposals would really
mean

Many artists and celebrities who spoke up and
helped out in a big way, including Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor,
Eva Longoria, George Clooney, Katy Perry, Beyoncé and Jay Z, Scarlett
Johansson, Kerry Washington, Cher, Kathy Griffin, and others.

The middle-left of American politics, which
mostly stuck together and didn’t freak out (except once) or do the
circular firing squad thing

All of us who did whatever we could –
wrote blog posts, shared information on Twitter, corrected the record,
wrote letters to editors, donated money, made phone calls, canvassed, went
to rallies, held signs, helped GOTV.
This victory is ours.

The Biggest Losers:

Mitt and Ann Romney and some of the <1%, ultra-wealthy
they represent

Paul Ryan, who was shown to be a lightweight,
a liar and not too good with numbers

Others, including more moderate voices like David
Frum, Andrew Sullivan, Peggy Noonan and Maureen Dowd, did themselves some
harm.

Leadership: President Obama ran an
excellent campaign, proved his leadership many times, took some risks
(especially going big early in the campaign to define Mitt Romney) and campaigned
incredibly hard, all while doing his day job (which, it turns out, is actually
a 24/7 job). He deserves a lot of credit
for clearly defining the campaign as a real choice between very different
visions, policies, and pathways for America – this is essential going #forward. He managed to rekindle the progressive fires,
maintained a moderate tone, all the while dealing with issues from the global
to the local that are part of his job.

Romney’s Business Record: The
Obama campaign, and many others, did an excellent job at recasting Romney’s
strength – his business record – as a liability. The campaign, with a lot of support from
researchers, writers, former employees, and many others, exposed the predatory
tactics that Bain used to suck the life, and jobs, out of successful companies
and harvest their assets. The returns
for Bain were always huge; investors usually made out well too; but all too
often, the employees lost their jobs and were robbed of their pensions, and
communities that had once had healthy economies went bust. This was an ugly picture and really
undermined Romney’s core argument as to why people should vote for him. He also helped reveal himself as a corporatist with his "corporations are people, my friend" comment. By summer, he was trying to run away from his record at Bain, rather than on it.

Summer trip and conventions: The Romney's spent part of the summer on a trip to Europe that was meant to burnish his foreign policy credentials, but ended up being a gaffe-a-minute, insulting one country after the other. Then, the Republican convention was delayed because of another of those pesky hurricanes, although it didn't stop Romney from making a joke about rising oceans and also offering useless advice to those hit by the hurricane. The convention itself was a true benefit only to insomniacs. Governor Chris Christie's keynote failed to mention the actual candidate; Romney's biopic was not shown; and Romney's own acceptance speech was upstaged by Clint Eastwood's bizarre "dialog" with an empty chair. In contrast, the DNC was electrifying, with one dazzling and inspiring speech after the other. Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and President Obama were of course the highlights, and there were many other inspiring moments, including Gabby Giffords leading the Pledge of Allegiance.

Libya: The
horrific attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi,
Libya was a
defining moment, not so obviously for President Obama as for Mitt Romney. His opportunistic attack on the President
even as the attack was unfolding, followed by the infamous smirking press conference, caused even staunch Republicans to criticize his craven
exploitation of the tragedy for political purposes. While the confusion about what happened when
did hurt the President somewhat (apparently unjustly), Romney’s opportunism was
widely derided. Instead of having the
good sense to STFU about it, he reprised his criticism in the second debate,
with devastating consequences to his own campaign.

47% Video: Mother Jones release of the video in which Mitt Romney dismissed almost half the population as a bunch of irresponsible moochers was a major turning point. Now there was direct evidence of what Mitt Romney really thinks about many Americans. Unfortunately for him, not only was it taped, but by conflating Obama supporters, people who receive government assistance and people who pay no federal income taxes, he managed to actually alienate all three groups. He later tried to walk back his remarks, but it was too little too late.

The first debate:
I can see where the
President was coming from in the first debate, since Romney lied so much and disavowed
positions that his campaign was based on (and that were still on his website
despite his disavowal). I think Obama
may have been cautious about stooping to Romney’s level and thus seeming “unpresidential.”
Perhaps he assumed that the
fact-checkers would nail Romney after the debate. Unfortunately, Obama’s passive performance left
Romney unchallenged, so he got away with his lies and misrepresentations. Instead of putting Romney away, the debate
allowed Romney to reinvent himself to some voters.

Yet Obama wasn’t that
bad and Romney wasn’t that good.
In the days following the debate, though, the “left” was overly critical
and negative, making things worse. But
the debate did allow Romney to re-create the impression of a competent leader,
thus allowing him to overcome some of the negative impressions that had built
up through a summer of gaffes, insults to allies, a mismanaged convention and embarrassing
revelations like the 47% video. I can
well imagine that President Obama was a little surprised that all Romney’s
failings were forgotten or forgiven based on the President’s weak debate.

Joe Biden comes through: I
don’t think Joe Biden has gotten the credit he deserves for stopping that
narrative in its tracks. He did a great
job of being Joe Biden, and that made for a terrific comparison with Paul Ryan,
who was revealed as pretty shallow, somewhat petty and out of his league.

Presidential Debates #2 and #3: The Libya
exchange, and particularly President Obama’s brilliant, “Please proceed,Governor,” followed by Candy Crowley debunking Romney’s claim, will be replayed
for years to come. The President came
ready for action, and while he remained his usual polite self, he was still
sharp, quick-witted, well-informed and much more successful at challenging
Romney’s smoke and mirrors.

Superstorm Sandy: The
devastation of New Jersey and New York evoked memories of the Bush
Administration’s pitiful response to Katrina, and also brought attention to
Romney’s ill-advised joke about rising oceans and more importantly, his vows to
reduce the federal role and budget for disaster relief. Yet, it was not without risks for Obama, not
the least of which was that Governor Christie is one of the GOP’s rising
stars. But because Obama is naturally
attuned to bringing people together, the way they were able to put partisanship
aside reminded people of how government can and should work. At the same time, Romney’s lame attempt to
appear relevant and generous fell flat, making him look like an
opportunist. Which he is.

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt/Lies about Jeep: As our reader maelewis pointed out, Mitt Romney's words came back to haunt him. Try as he might, he couldn't distance himself from the opinion piece that he had written for the New York Times back in November 2008. Nor could he rewrite history about what he really meant, even though he tried. Not only did Detroit and Michigan remember that he had argued for the demise of the auto industry, but Ohio remembered, too. It was a really wonderful thing that he wasn't able to spin this, and in the end it killed him in several swing states he really needed to carry. Then, late in the campaign, Romney continually lied about Jeep sending jobs to China. This was particularly ironic for someone who could have become the Outsourcer-in-Chief. However, his lies were debunked by every news outlet and by the VP and later the CEO of Chrysler. (h/t sleuth1) In effect, what Romney did was prove himself a liar, and voters noticed.Beautiful Karma: I have had a not-so-secret
hope for weeks that Romney’s final vote tally would be 47%, and it looks like I
will get my wish. Poetic justice.

Non-Democratic House: One of the few really unfortunate outcomes of the election is that the GOP held onto its
majority in the House, so it looks like we are stuck with Speaker Boehner,
Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, certifiably whacky Michele Bachmann (on Intelligence Committee-gag) and other unqualified hacks for another two years.
Ironically, Democrats received more votes (in aggregate) in the House races than Republicans, by more than a
half-million votes. Gerrymandered
districts are the reason that many House seats stayed in Republican hands. This needs to be solved.

Voter Suppression: I wasn’t
the only one who felt that Karl Rove’s meltdown on Fox News was due to his
belief that voter suppression and tampering with the vote totals would deliver Ohio to the GOP, as in
2004. My impression was that he wasn’t
going on like that because of the numbers; it was because they weren’t
factoring in enough dirty tricks. This
needs to be solved.

It’s not over.
Concerns for the future: I am so relieved that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan
lost, and that the margin of victory was so significant – an Electoral College
landslide. We all deserve to truly savor
this victory.

Yet, of course, this is
one election. Karl Rove was embarrassed
and criticized, but he’s already shrugging it off as if nothing happened, and
getting ready to work some more of his dark magic.

I am also very concerned
that Romney got as many votes as he did, despite his extreme dishonesty and
non-disclosure. The media was not effective
in preventing him from running a campaign of lies, distortions, misleading
statements, and dizzying flip-flops that is unparalleled in American
history. He (sort of) got away with
refusing to even engage with the media for much of the campaign, except in
pre-scripted ways. He (sort of) got away
with cheating and certainly got away with lying through his teeth at the first
debate. He raised lying to an art form,
and although he lost, he set a horrible precedent in that the media (despite occasional
efforts) was really not able to pin him down on the lies. He disregarded and (to some degree) made a
mockery of fact-checking. He also
(almost) got away with not releasing his tax returns; ironically, since it was
his father who had set the precedent, the fact that he (almost) successfully stonewalled
on this seems all the more troubling. Serious questions about his character were
raised and undoubtedly made an impression on some voters, but he was still
largely successful in portraying himself as a successful businessman and a man
of personal integrity. Many voters voted for an illusion of what Mitt Romney wanted them to believe about him, rather
than who he really is. Fortunately, despite seemingly "getting away" with these things, he LOST. Of course, chances are if he HAD disclosed his taxes or been held accountable for his lies, he would have lost by more.

Another concern, of course, is
Citizens United. Yes, we survived this
election, but what about the mid-terms in 2014?
What is going to get out the vote then, so that we don’t regress to the
Tea Party dominance that happened in 2010?
Who is going to so inspire the minority communities in 2016 to enable
the Dems to get out the vote? What about
the obvious impacts of gerrymandering; how will we solve that?

Let’s celebrate, and then
let’s roll up our sleeves and get back to work!

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What matters to us is the truth

"The chief thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbors it where it finds it. And another thing: the truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side."-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in a letter to Johann Peter Eckermann, December 16, 1828

Sensational revelations in the "Trig emails" about Sarah Palin's pregnancy

POST 1 - CLICK TO READ: Lisa Demer, journalist at the Anchorage Daily News, asked all the right questions about Sarah Palin's pregnancy with Trig, and asked directly for Trig's birth certificate - but was met by stonewalling and insults from Palin's staffPOST 2 - CLICK TO READ: More discoveries in Sarah Palin's released emails: Palin's team wanted to launch "pre-emptive strike" against ADN-story about Palin's pregnancy, was shocked that Lisa Demer tried to put together a "timeline" of Bristol's pregnancies and contacted schools and hospitals

POST 3 - CLICK TO READ: Newly released email suggests that five weeks after Trig's official birth, Sarah Palin didn't have a birth certificate for Trig

- UPDATE: Palin's spokesperson wants to "cut the ADN off" if they continue to ask questions about Trig's birth

- UPDATE 2: ADN-editor Pat Dougherty to Bill McAllister: "The judgment of your office to go after the Daily News on this Trig stuff would constitute malpractice"

Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy

Download all posts by Politicalgates about the faked pregnancy as PDF-document HERE.

Palin-biographer Joe McGinniss: "I think the Politicalgates archives are the best single available resource for anyone wondering why questions are still being asked about Sarah really being Trig’s birth mother." (from August 28, 2011)

We break the "Spiral of Silence" - Read the details about the "biggest hoax in American political history!"

Commentary at "The Guardian"

Commentary at "The Guardian" (UK) from April 28, 2011, written by Kathleen Baker, editor of Politicalgates, about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy: "Sarah Palin, unreliable narrator"

How she got away with it

How Sarah Palin finally got away with the Trig pregnancy hoax, despite a mountain of evidence: Read this overview

Download Sarah Palin Trig pregnancy research paper

Download the research paper regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy and the role of the media, written by Brad Scharlott, Associate Professor for Journalism at Northern Kentucky University - CLICK HERE.

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